TORONTO – While he didn’t directly address the now-expired hostile bid to purchase the company he just joined, Cogeco Connexion president Frédéric Perron (pictured in a screen cap) did use his first speech to the industry to send a message: “We’re here to stay… and we’re here to grow.”
During a Tuesday keynote to online delegates of the 19th annual Canadian Telecom Summit, Perron (a Canadian with a long background of telecom experience in Europe) noted the company likes to say “that we’re one of the well kept secrets in the industry, at least up to recently,” and he outlined the work the company has done to connect the various communities it serves in southern Quebec and Ontario.
Perron talked about the company’s $1 billion investment commitments, adding “in the past two months, we have announced upcoming connections to 25,000 homes,” as well as the company’s recent announced $405 million acquisition of Dery Telecom.
While Cogeco faces many challenges because it’s much smaller than the likes of Rogers, Bell and others, “we love our size,” said Perron. “We like to say that we have a speedboat and not a big oil tanker that’s slow to turn.”
